So my stumbling out of the gate is clearly a result of my finances going nearly unchecked for the past couple of years. If I wanted something — and I could justify the costs — I bought it. It’s pretty simple, really.

In my head, two weeks or so ago, I though, eh, I’ll just move some automatic payments around to knock out the auto loan, you know, and things will be just like they’ve been for what feels like forever. No big deal.

But then I see something I’ve gotta have on eBay. I spend a couple hundred bucks on my business. The auto insurance bill comes in. I buy a new tablet for my son’s birthday. You know, stuff.

Add all of that up and, well, hmmmmm…that was all of the extra money I’d had slated in my plan to go towards the auto loan.

Crap.

I can’t have it all.

Even still, I haven’t stopped the payment plan.

I didn’t even hit pause.

To get me through this rough patch, I brought over $500 from my savings account to get me by until my next paycheck.

And, hopefully, from here on out, I can curb my spending back to where it needs to be to make this all work…

When it became apparent that a new car purchase was imminent, my wife and I initiated a bunch of transfers from savings to checking in anticipation of, well, emptying the coffers to make a down payment.

It’s crazy how we can come up with money fast when we need it — I mean, we practically live paycheck-to-paycheck it seems and each subsequent daycare payment drops us even lower but, when push comes to shove, we were able to scramble together nearly $7k in cash in the span of 36 hours.

Weird how that happens.

Anyway, upon inspection of the Land Rover, we were given the dire news that we were already completely aware of — it’s a 4500 pound paperweight with an original sticker price of $50k.

Fifteen hundred bucks to take it off of our hands was a deal I was willing to make.

Following that, they asked if we were going to write a check as an additional down payment — as if they didn’t think we’d intended to.

Now, we’ve been in this situation before. The most recent occurance that I can remember was our big interior renovation project. We’d saved up a bunch of money and paid it *all* out at the onset only to find ourselves cash strapped for what seemed like forever.

Sure, it gave us a huge jump on paying for the whole thing but…well, it wasn’t a great idea.

It sucked actually.

Being a lot wiser now, I realized that writing a $7000 check right then and there would only alter my monthly payment by maybe $100.

A hundred bucks is nothing compared to $7k in the bank.

In my eyes, anyway.

My wife and I looked at each other, shrugged, and decided, “Yeah, okay, we’ll toss another $1000 in towards the down payment.”

So I wrote a check for $1000. No rhyme or reason to that sum.

But that’s it — a $1500 trade-in and a $1000 check for the car and the rest went right back into savings.

So, along with a $444/month payment, we still have money to fall back on *and* a new car.

Yeah, while that payment kinda sucks, it’s still a much more comfortable setting than a new car, a $344/month payment, and an empty piggy bank…for months.

Always a better move to use other people’s money — especially when they’re practically giving it away for free…

I read an article somewhere that said something to the effect of “Saving is for Suckers” — I wish I could find it. It was just a few days ago…

Anyway, it wasn’t a broad stroke sort of thing — obviously saving isn’t for suckers — but, right now, with rates hovering just over one percent, well, it’d probably be a wiser strategy to put the money to use elsewhere.

As things currently stand, I’m saving like crazy so much so that I’m genuinely excited to post my net worth update.

Unfortunately, that also means that I’m a sucker.

I know it’s stupid — I should be paying down my mortgage at 6-something percent instead. Though I’m nearly 10 years into my mortgage, big payments now still make a much larger dent than payments of the same size 5 years down the road.

It’d be in my best interest to hit the mortgage hard right now while my savings are earning so little.

But on the other hand, there’s a lot of comfort that comes with a big number in the savings account. And I’m really trying to save up to get that much needed renovation (started and) paid for. Right now, I’m guessing I’m about 25% of the way there.

Now I know what you’re thinking, here he goes again… I’m not flip-flopping again — just re-evaluating my options.

I just noticed this this morning… ING Direct lowered their interest rate to 1.391%.

The last time that they changed (and lowered) their rate was back on March 21.

At the time, if you remember, it was pretty much expected and it was their third or fourth rate reduction of the year. Every few weeks, they’d lower it a bit.

Things just seemed gloomy all around.

But it’s been quiet since then, the stock market has roared back up, there are media reports of people saving instead of spending, and, honestly, I was actually expecting them to raise the rate sometime over the summer.

You know, to maybe attract all of these reported *new* savers out there???

So this morning I was doing the nerdy spreadsheet thing and, while fiddling around, I came across an old macro that I’d set up right when I first became an ING Direct Orange Saver to calculate the interest that I’d earn.

A poor man’s interest calculator of sorts…

I plugged in my current ING balance and was thrilled to see that I should be earning over $50 per month in interest…

…using today’s balance and January 2007’s interest rate…

Of course, well documented here on PIAC, ING’s interest rate has dropped over 300% since then.

When I started way back in January 2007, with dollar signs in my eyes I might add, I was targeting a balance of around $8k so that I’d be earning around one dollar per day in interest.

That just seemed exciting for some reason.

So here I am currently around the $13k mark, well in excess of that $8k target, and I’m only bringing in around 50-cents each day.

I’m not really certain what prompted it but I’ve already committed to spending over $3300 this month… and we’re only one week in.

Ouch!

So much for the budget!?

Last month, I *so* wanted to increase my savings by $1000, decrease my mortgage balance by $1000, and somehow manage to pad my checking account with another $1000 too…

Doing the math (while keeping regular monthly expenses in mind), technically, that doesn’t even seem to be possible. But, man, I came darn close in May.

So far, the new baby isn’t costing us anything more than we expected or could handle.

Of course, with child care looming in the future, I’m well aware that that’s going to change in a hurry so I’m going to do my best to put the biggest dent in the mortgage that I can while I can still afford to.

So, this past week (I’m already one payment in!), I increased my weekly additional mortgage principle payment from $75 all the way up to $230.

Though I’ll just be scraping by, I somehow can afford to send $230 each week to CountryWide, or Bank of America, or whatever they’re called this month…

While making this budgetary change, which all but ensures that my mortgage balance will fall by over $1000 each month, I decided to make sure my savings account balance would grow by at least $1000 per month too.

It just seemed like a good time to go all out.

Five minutes on the computer and another modification of weekly auto-transfers — an increase from $165/per week all the way up to $250 per week.

There are always at least 4-weeks per month, so I’m guaranteed to increase my balance by $1000 plus interest.

That wasn’t so painful…

So, putting it all together, I essentially increased my weekly outflow by $240.

Considering that I was totally accustomed to my previous outflow, this almost feels like I’m eliminating $1k worth of debt and amassing $1k in savings for just $240 per week.

That’s a pretty good return.

I know it’s not as simple as that — it’s actually costing me double — but it certainly feels like I’m getting a great deal.

The only spot that I’ll tank each month will be in my checking account. I can live with that.

Now I know what some are saying, “Must be nice to have a 14-figure salary… I could do that too if I made as much as you…”

I’ll be the first to admit that $240 per week is not a small number. And it’s certainly not an amount that everyone can afford — and that’s okay.